First Impressions: The New Normal ‘Pilot’ – Let Me Help You

For what we’ve come to expect from Ryan Murphy shows (Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story), The New Normal is a fairly tame story about family, deconstructing the meaning of ‘non-traditional’ in 2012. In fact, without Ryan Murphy at the helm (he also co-wrote and directed the pilot) The New Normal has some potential to be a decent family comedy. But his normal self-indulgences and bad habits overshadow the pilot’s positives, a half-hour of comedy that’s both intriguing and frustrating – but never really that funny.

The premise of the show is basically a scaled-down, reworked version of the Modern Family pilot: gay couple Bryan and David decide to have a baby through a surrogate mother (after Bryan sees an infant while shopping, exclaiming “That is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, I must have it”) and after some searching, they find Goldie, a single mother whose recent break-up/life awakening led her to the $35,000 paycheck of having someone else’s baby. With no home or family outside of her racist, homophobic mother Jane, she moves in with Bryan and David while they try and have a child together. 

Being a show from Murphy, I expected a certain amount of overt humor and self-indulgent moments poking at the anti-gay audience – and I wasn’t disappointed. There are racist jokes about Asians and blacks (“Thanks for building all those railroads,” Jane tells an Asian girl helping her with computers), lots of typical gay humor (David likes football, Bryan “half-time” means Madonna’s going to sing), all topped off by a playground scene encapsulating every frustration I’ve ever had with Murphy (non-related to his silly and graphic violent tendencies), including a sequence where he puts a little person in a fucking Barbie convertible, describing her kid as someone who “might have to work part-time as a Christmas elf.” Combine that with the string of horrible things coming out of Jane’s mouth (which is just offensive to be offensive, like a Tosh.O rape joke), and you’ve got a show that’s as insensitive as the people its trying to make fun of.

It’s too bad, because there is some promise to the show’s characters. There are moments where Bryan and David don’t feel like the world’s most predictable ‘gay odd couple’ (David’s more worried about being a good dad than Bryan, for instance), and Goldie’s daughter Shania, is so sharp and intelligent, it’s almost unbelievable (after Goldie realizes on a beach that she’s been a failure at being an adult, Shania tells her “You don’t ever have to say you’re sorry to me, just to yourself”). And in the last couple minutes when the four of them spend some together, The New Normal shows some promise into what it might become once it moves past the decidedly broad humor of the pilot, and tries to start telling some real entertaining stories about these characters.

But ultimately, a number of contrived plot points that skip over important character moments, and as a result, the show fails to establish any sort of consistent tone for the series. I was never really attached to Goldie, whose important journey of independence and maturity should’ve been a lot more layered than three quick scenes where she changes her life (more on that in the notes below). Giving her character more life by showing her journey would’ve given her story a lot more life – and would’ve provided a chance to give Jane some nuance beyond “she hates gay people because her husband cheated on her with a guy.”

I’m going to give The New Normal a few episodes: if it can shake the undeniable Murphy-isms in its foundation (like the dream sequence of Goldie in a cout room… boring), and see if it can harness its moments of sharp dialogue into actual story telling, it could be a great single-camera comedy about the growing pains of a building a new family. As a pilot, it’s a very mixed bag of dull character tropes, rushed emotional moments, and insensitive portrayals that ultimately rob it of its charm and positive vibes.

Grade: C-

(The New Normal airs on NBC, 9:30pm Tuesday nights beginning September 11th).

Other thoughts/observations:

– NeNe Leakes from Real Housewives in Atlanta needs to go. She’s a sassy black girl all the way, a pointless character in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, her credentials give me doubt to any acting skills outside of shaking fingers and yelling at rich, white women.

– I think Jane could be a great character if she’s toned down a bit – although that would just turn her into a female Jay Pritchett.

– Goldie another female character whose big awakening only comes face-to-face with her boyfriend banging someone else. This is THE MOST tired premise in television, a trope I’m so fucking tired of seeing on television. In the last year we’ve had Best Friends Forever, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23… need I keep going?

– Baby-building on an iPad? That’s just creepy.

– I don’t care how much you liked the show, Goldie telling David he’s going to be an awesome character was completely unearned. She doesn’t even know the guy – I would like to see him struggle with this for more than five minutes. Why should I just believe he’s going to be a great father? There are tons of shitty ones out there, and just because a stranger and his partner tell him that, doesn’t mean its true. Avoiding silly Lifetime-movie moments like this would go a long way to giving the show a unique, more compelling blend of heartwarming family comedy.

What did you think of The New Normal? Leave your thoughts/comments below, and feel free to discuss it with me on Twitter or with other readers on the Facebook page! I’ll be checking in with this show for the first few episodes to see how it progresses, so look for those in mid-September.